Sold! – Maybe

A little over a month ago, I shared my thoughts about listing our home for sale. It surprised me that I felt a little nostalgic instead of just relieved to be moving. (I’ve been waiting to move closer to the grandies since the first one was born 7 years ago.)

Before the Listing

For months, we spent all our spare time working on our home — trying to get it ready to sell. I did my research on what improvements would make the most impact. I tried to look at each room objectively; then, I made a list of things that needed fixed, redone or just improved. And of course, I watched many, many episodes of Buying and Selling.

We tried to follow much of the Scott brothers‘ advice. We painted with nice neutral colors, we updated the master bath, and added new flooring where needed. We cleared out the clutter and everything personal. After staging, our house looked almost like a show home. If I do say so myself, the online slide show of our home looked pretty amazing. Thanks for the helpful advice Jonathan and Drew (even if you didn’t know you were helping)! I still wish you’d come to Texas and do a show about building a custom home on a budget.

Finally Listed

Since we listed our home right before the Christmas holidays, I didn’t really expect any activity until the end of January or maybe even February. We were pleasantly surprised to have showings everyday during the last days of December (except the actual holidays).

Offers

We even received an offer before the end of the year. That buyer changed his mind before the end of his option period and we were back on the market by the end of the first week in January. Once again we had daily showings with 3 on Saturday. We received 2 offers, four days after being back on the market.

We accepted the offer that seemed the best. — The option period is over, the inspection completed, the appraisal survived and we are cautiously optimistic. It seems that we now we wait on the underwriting of the buyers’ loan. Hopefully, one of my next posts will be about moving.

Underwriting

I had to do a little research to find out just what underwriting on a loan means. It seems an underwriter is the last person to make the decision on a mortgage loan. Even if the buyer is pre approved; there’s still a chance that the underwriter can deny the loan. It’s the underwriter’s responsibility to make sure that all loan requirements are met, the appraisal is accurate, and the buyers’ income and credit are appropriate for the loan. So, we are keeping our fingers crossed that everything will still look good to the buyers’ loan underwriter.

Moving

Now, it’s time to finish packing; move everything to storage and get ready for the next phase of our lives.

Have you ever sold a house? What process did you find most helpful when preparing to list your home? What do you think helped your sell your house?